Description:
This report discusses the history and function of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) as it stood in November 1989, focusing on the benefit of the OTA's function as a practical analysis tool concerning technological issues.

Description:
This report discusses the development of telecommunications technologies and the study of distance learning. OTA was asked to analyze various technological options, examine current development, and identify how Federal, State and local policies could encourage more efficient and effective use.

Description:
This report provides an overview of progress made by nine compacts and the remaining unaffiliated States in developing disposal facilities. Disposal costs have more than tripled while LLW volumes have dropped by more than half over the last decade. Since many costs associated with developing and operating a disposal facility are fixed, unit disposal costs will increase substantially as new facilities open. This may lead States to consider the economics of cooperative arrangements, which would permit them to trade waste services and construct fewer full-service disposal facilities.

Description:
This report finds that many State EMS systems are fragmented and lacking resources to remedy EMS problems in rural areas. Many rural EMS programs lack specialized EMS providers, have inadequate EMS transportation and communications equipment, and are not part of a planned regional EMS system. The report describes the availability and distribution of emergency medical service (EMS) resources (e.g., personnel, transportation, facilities) and examines how limited Federal resources can be used to improve rural EMS. In addition, the report discusses how Federal EMS resources might be targeted to States’ rural areas.

Description:
In this report, OTA concludes that there is ample reason to be optimistic about the potential of the Superfund program and presents a number of possible strategic initiatives and incremental program changes in some detail. As difficult as the national cleanup job is, there are many ways to build a better balance between health and environmental needs and the limitations that technology, experience, and economics will always impose.

Description:
This special report reviews the safety of the nuclear testing program and assesses the technical procedures used to test nuclear weapons and ensure that radioactive material produced by test explosions remains contained underground. An overall evaluation considers the acceptability of the remaining risk and discusses reasons for the lack of public confidence.

Description:
This report first examines home recording technologies. Then—focusing primarily on audiotaping—we examine the ambiguous legal status of home copying. Our report considers the economic effects that home audiotaping may have on the recording industry, contrasted to the effects that restricting home taping might have on consumers. Finally, we identify a range of actions that either Congress or the industry might pursue.

Description:
This report discusses options for a national policy based on the dual strategies of MSW prevention and better management. It also presents options to address immediate problems such as increased interstate shipments of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and unfinished Federal guidelines for landfills and incinerators.

Description:
This report addresses several questions regarding the dissemination of scientific and technical information (STI). The paper answers these questions within a framework for an overall strategy on STI dissemination, and identifies key elements that could be useful in such a strategy.

Description:
This report starts out by discussing in details the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and its impact on local construction, it provides statistical analysis of the effects of the Tax reform Act, it discusses innovative infrastructure financing techniques, finally federal infrastructure policy options.

Description:
A report on Advanced Vehicle/Highway Systems (AVHS),as an umbrella term for several interdependent vehicle and road technologies, that offers potential for reducing congestion and the air pollution it engenders, and for improving highway safety.

Description:
This background paper explores key issues concerning the Federal role in supporting national high performance computing facilities and in developing a national research and education network.

Description:
This report identifies U.S. interests in Antarctica and evaluates the Minerals Convention relative to these interests. It examines the status of knowledge about the resources of Antarctica, the potential impacts of minerals development, and the technical, economic, environmental, geological, and political constraints to development in Antarctica.

Description:
The background paper does not attempt to provide a comprehensive critique of national statistics and does not introduce new research designed to solve the technical problems. It is, instead, designed to show how defects in the existing statistical system can limit our understanding of key economic issues and to demonstrate the ways that better management and coordination of America’s statistical agencies can lead to concrete improvements.

Description:
This special report examines a wide range of potential improvements to the Space Shuttle, explores the future of space transportation for humans, and presents policy options for congressional consideration. It is one of a series of products from abroad assessment of space transportation technologies undertaken by OTA, requested by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Description:
This report on urban ozone was requested by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and its Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in anticipation of the upcoming reauthorization of the Clean Air Act. Of the air pollutants that the Act covers, ozone has been the most difficult to bring under control; it may well be the most expensive.

Description:
This background paper reviews the status of the major sectors of the maritime industry engaged in EEZ activities and notes the significant trends. Basic data on the major sectors were first prepared for OTA by the Maritime Administration. OTA then conducted a survey of industry and other interested parties and prepared the analyses in the paper.

Description:
This paper examines dichotomous designations used to define rural and urban areas and discusses how they are applied in certain Federal programs. In addition, several topologies are described that are useful in showing the diversity that exists within rural areas.

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